Originally Posted by carrera mike

UPDATE / 14SEP

after 3 + months, 2000+ miles of driving
re-measured the height/gaps with full tank of gas (same weight on it as the last 4 pix in the intitial post:

REAR 26.56" or 26 9/16"

FRONT 25.81" or 25 13/16"

difference of:

.06" in the front &

.49" for the rear

Originally Posted by 993S

GMG is made by Eibach, as are the Techarts. Are you saying Eibach can only make the GMC spring correct and not their own or the Techart one.

GMG springs have less comfort, Techart the most from what I am reading. Also the Techart's lower the least it seems which is good for the four wheel drive turbo.
And lastly, I am perfectly happy with the stock handling and only want the car a little bit lower but want to retain comfort of stock.

Have you read the links I posted? It's Eclou's expierence with the Techarts. His words "I actually found the ride MORE compliant than before"

Is GMG even available in Europe ?

Originally Posted by dianic

I believe GMG is available here, but at a premium and that VAT thing we get charged with too! Dammit.

Paul, yes I have driven in Skands car, I am going to meet him tomorrow for that matter. I will compare with my stock (but surely sagged since 2007) ride height. My car has 21k miles - 34k kms.
I want to measure his car, the H&Rs have been on there since 2010.

Overall impression when I drove in his car was wow! Apart form the spectacular power from software, the handling was so much ... taught-er? As we were heading back on a highway from an off ramp, there is a slight "jump" in the end as it merges. At ridiculous speeds entering the highway, my car did jump, his stayed on the ground. I was sold on the spot.

I stayed up till 3.30 last night (thanks Denis!) reading the threads linked above as well as the 3 pages of the search I did over at the 6.
I have also read in the recent past all that info, including Cangas "dissertation" on suspension! And Doc's writings as well about track setup, as well as Paul's very sharp observations in that thread (I do recall saying wow when you caught some detail which proved a correct observation) so I very much respect everyone's opinions.

There have been whispers about "settling" or "sagging" call it whatever you want for the H&R s but only in a few posts. Canga says that H&R may have softer rates than the techart and the GMG. The GMG is surely the hardest, and definitely the most expensive. I dont track the car enough to need that. I dont want my ride to become any harsher...

What I need is in the bi-weekly Sunday stint on open roads, not to have to remember to press the sport button above 100 as the nose starts to "bob". That annoys me. Unfortunately the way things are in Greece, I am not too comfortable going around in a TT any more, and that seems to be the case for a while. So, I figure I may as well enjoy that Sunday ride...

Springs will run me 300 euro or so plus install that Skand will do this or next week. So that is a relatively cheap experiment. Anything else, which is likely to be double the money is no longer an experiment but a commitment. Lets start with the experiment, and see.

Finally, there is no better reference for me than the opinion of Skand. He has had them on his car since 2010, he is extremely pleased, and he is a picky, opinionated ba$$ard. So, that being said, I trust his judgment.

Did I mention he will be joining us here too? :-)

Originally Posted by speed21

No. Don't know enough about any of them other than what i've read and sometimes it's hard to base a decision on something that will ultimately alter the ride comfort without actually having a drive in the car.

Yes i had read the links, some of them from previously. And with eclou, again one mans pleasure can be the next mans poison so again, and with all due respect, with so many good and bad stories out there it becomes a tough call who's word to take. I guess i'm a little skeptical now after my Bilstein experience after listening to so many glowing stories to only find the car was too hard and mechanical for general street work. Compliant is also a word i hear used regularly in defence of such mods ie the car is now more compliant, but what is "more compliant?" when in essence the normal ride becomes as hard as sports mode and the suspension more mechanical (noisey).. leaving the seats to take up all the bumps. Maybe i'm getting too old because nowadays i expect a good result without such a dramtic compromises to the comfort levels...and im probably about as fussy with making things as perfect as you can get lol. And here it is Nick is saying skands fussy. Maybe i'm worse.. Oh well...lol..

The TT is a nice car so you have to be carefull where you want to take the level of the ride and the noises that go along with it. I'm sure just coils wont be nearly as radical in departure as coilovers as the coilovers have the helper springs (2 piece system) which creates noise in itself....however, once you fit shorter coils to regular shocks you will take the shock somewhat out of its "sweet spot" so, there has to be an effect from doing that. Yep it's all very tempting, but it's a tough one when the car essentially rides and handles well enough in most street situations, plus the sports mode does tighten things considerably when you need.

I found after a good alignment it made a world of difference, but yes i would agree it would be nice to have a slightly lower ride height for vanity AND tighten the handling up a touch in normal mode without turning the car into a buck board.

On the techarts i recall Skand selling a set for one of his friends that apparently got the ****s with them. Also Skand fitted the H and R and not the techart when he could have used the ones he was selling, so that was interesting. As Nick says Skand is a very particular guy and i'm inclined to agree with Nick on that.
He's very passionate when it comes to his TT.

And re GMG. Don't know if they are in EU but to get them out of the states is easy and cheap enough so that wouldn't be an obstacle for me.




Lol, no but it would be great to see him over here. Say Kalimera from me when you next see him OK. Maybe when i'm in Athens later this year i can check that ride out for myself....that is if it's safe for you guys to drive your cars. Ive shortened my stay in Athens down to 2 nights on the way back through the isles so i'll effectively only have the next day to day anything by the time i fly in. Normally i stay at least 3 nights in Athens but after all the drama last year it's put me off a bit. Athens used to be such a great place....such a shame really...

So did you ride in his car on regular roads? Some of those streets can be a bit dodgy....and a good test IYKWIM. The expressways over there are generally too smooth to be able to make a proper call imo.

Originally Posted by 993S

You know what , I believe we are making this forum just a tiny bit more interesting again

Nick, I too stayed up late (for me, not 3:30AM) and read here and on 6.
BTW, I can not believe your car, on its original springs, has sagged a mm. For sure not with that low mileage.

Back to lowering springs.

Techart:

I found, and maybe I did not look hard enough, one negative comment on the Techart's. The forum user found the ride to be 'bouncy. In an other topic this same person stated 'Mine came lowered on TechArt springs so I don't really know what stock feels like. All I can say is it isn't nearly as harsh as some of the other lowered cars I've had in the past. In fact, I regularly have the car in sport mode b/c the normal setting is too 'bouncy'.
So he has/had no experience with a regular stock turbo. And we all know that a stock turbo can be 'bouncy', for lack of a better word. Also note the car is/was equipped with rather heavy 20"wheels. More on that further down.
Beside this one person I found nothing but happy Techart customers.

GMG

After reading many comments I am even more convinced GMG springs are harder than Techart, I believe this would be the best set-up for road and track. A non issue for me as I do not track my car. Purely street. For Street only they might be too hard for me.

H&R

I found some to be extremely happy and some to be not so happy and several remarks of ‘sagging’. Although H&R is a brand with a strong reputation, OEM equipment for Carrera GT and 996 GT3 RS I am not interested in them for the reason only that they lower more than GMG or Techart.

Shocks

A stock shock has quite some ‘travel’ where it operates in its ‘sweet spot’ as Paul describes it. In general stock shocks accept a lowering of around 40mm. The 20-30mm that is offered for our turbo’s has no effect on shock performance.
Shocks are tubes with a cylinder in it with small holes and if this cylinder travels from A tot E , or from B to F does not make a difference. Lowering too much will destroy a shock as it will reach it critical point and will bottom out. That destroys a shock within days and the result is no more damping. Not good.

Wheels

My biggest concern when reading user comments about lowering springs is the wheels they have on the car. 2 identical cars equipped with different wheels, one forged 19”, the other with cast 20” will give a totally different experience. So when reading comments on lowering springs it is very important to know what wheels are on the car. The best spring in the world wont ‘repair’ a heavy 20” wheel.

In the end we have to go with what we think is best.

Originally Posted by TT Gasman

If you can't drop the car just add the GT3 LCAs to achieve the negative camber needed.